Alas, this is my final trade target article of the year. I feel like I should've trolled people by doing Mike Trout or something but I'll have to settle for Konerko. I don't mind that though because Konerko is one of the ultimate good guys in the game on and off the field. But could he take that rep to the Pirates?
Paul Konerko is has been the face of the White Sox for the past decade. He's been a cornerstone for a long time but now that the Sox are selling and he's in the final year of his deal, he might be had. Konerko is having a rough year. He has only 7 HRs, 30 RBIs, and a slash of .249/.314/.368 OPS .682. That's bad. Especially compared to his career averages of 31 HRs, 100 RBIs, and a slash of .282/.358/.495 OPS .852. So I'd expect his putrid first half stats to rise. He does have great split stats though. He hits for an OPS over .900 against lefties in his career and is doing that this year. Not ideal, but he could replace Gaby in a platoon if Gaby were to be traded. With RISP Konerko hits .285/.379/.470 OPS .849 in his career and is hitting an even better .333/.467/.509 OPS .975 this season. So he passes that test. He's never been good with the glove so don't count on that.
Issues Konerko brings. Well, first off he's old. Like I showed with Justin Morneau yesterday, stats get worse with age (unless you're Raul Ibañez and the complete opposite happens). Konerko being 36 and hitting that bad is worrisome. He should pick it up a bit but you never know. Second thing that comes with age is injury. Konerko gets hurt a lot and is hurt right now. I'm not even sure if he can be traded after his latest injury. That's the last thing I want in a trade target. Giving something up for a guy who's constantly injured and won't play. My last problem is that he is such a sentimental piece in Chicago. Sentimental value drives up everything. Just watch Pawn Stars. That means I'm going to be paying a lot more for Konerko because he's the face of the franchise. I'm not sure I'd do that with better options available.
Overall, I'm not going after Konerko. He is the Chicago White Sox and Jim Bowden reported that the Sox will trade anyone but Chris Sale and Konerko. Now, I'm very wary of Bowden (he watched 10 minutes of the futures game and determined that Gregory Polanco has a loopy swing and is bad in center field LOL and he said Konerko should be our top target LOL) but the sentiment is there. I'm not going to overpay for a guy who really doesn't fit on the team and really isn't that big of an upgrade. I'll take my chances with the rest if the first base/right field market. But, don't be surprised if NH asks about him.
UPDATE: Jim Bowden connected the Pirates to Justin Morneau today. But as I explained above, be wary of his "rumors" and "sources".
At this point I'd like to thank you all for reading my trade target series. It was fun to write and it'll be fun to see who the Pirates trade for in the next two weeks. I'll do more articles on targets if new names appear as Pirates targets and as always write more opinion articles on the team. You can also count on me to evaluate any and all trades the Pirates make (or don't make). But until then, au revoir.
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